Sambalpur: The Ainthapali police have arrested two persons in connection with the armed robbery at Manappuram Finance office at Bubarja in Sambalpur. While dacoit Pankaj Paswan (26) of Bihar’s Hajipur was arrested from West Bengal’s Hooghly district, his cousin Ajay Paswan was arrested in Sambalpur’s Thelkuli area.
A case of robbery and illegal arms dealing was registered against them. They, along with other members of their gang, robbed gold worth Rs 20 crore and cash from the Manappuram Finance office at Bubarja in Sambalpur earlier this month. Till now, police are yet recover 28 kg gold and Rs 4.81 lakh in cash looted by the gang.
According to police sources, Bihar’s notorious criminals Subodh Singh and Palu Singh gang are involved in the Sambalpur Manappuram Finance robbery. Although Pankaj Paswan’s team is not involved in the Jajpur dacoity incident, their leader Subodh Singh’s gang is involved, police said. The two gang leaders are in jail and plotted the robbery and they selected their gang members Sublan, Sanjay and Pankaj for the dacoity in Sambalpur.
There are several cases of gold robbery in Bihar’s Hajipur against Sublan and Sanjay. According to police, he took the leadership of in Sambalpur dacoity. Since they were all brothers, there was good harmony between them.
All the three accused have been residing in a rented house in Thelkuli since a month and a half before the robbery. The house was taken on rent by another cousin, Ajay. For almost a month, everyone was regularly monitoring the functioning of Manappuram Finance at Bubharja.
